I have never posted anything in this Forum after a private message from Kile that I didn't like. However today, I must post something today because almost three years later I was finally proven right.
In the old Canadian Aviation Forum, now closed, I posted my point of view about what happened in the Azores. Nobody liked, a few attacked my lack of sensibility, I was told to wait for the report… and so on and so forth.
I don’t have access to the final report but to the Globe and Mail newspaper and I will not be able to get the report because I had to severe some “links†I had because of a disloyal lawyer (other kind of stories)
Finally the final report is out and I was proved 100% correct in everything I have said. Absolutely everything, be it the airmanship or the maintenance sides of the issue ...
After all it looks that I was not on "crack" B)
Excerpts
The harrowing, engines-out, emergency landing of a Canadian airliner that ran out of fuel over the Atlantic Ocean three years ago could have been avoided if the Air Transat pilots had followed established fuel-leak procedures, the official report into the accident concludes.
Instead of a near-disaster, a routine diversionary landing with plenty of fuel remaining would have resulted if proper produces were followed, Portugal's Aviation Accidents Prevention and Investigation Department says.
... ... ...
But accident investigators determined that the pilots turned a fuel leak into a near-disaster by failing to recognize it and trying to correct from memory – rather than by following a checklist – what they believed was a weight imbalance, during which time they pumped tonnes of fuel overboard.
... ... ...
However, the report makes clear that such heroics would not have been needed had the pilots shut down the right-side engine (where the fuel was leaking) or had not pumped tonnes of fuel from the undamaged left wing into the right-wing tanks, from where it was poured overboard at more than three kilograms a second.
"Either of these actions would have conserved the fuel in the left-wing tanks and allowed for a landing at Lajes with the left engine operating," the report says.
Instead, "opening the crossfeed valve put the fuel in the left tank at risk, and initiated a worsening of the serious fuel-leak situation."
The crew failed to comprehend that the aircraft had a major fuel leak, even after the second engine died.
... ... ...
Investigators established that fuel began leaking from the twin-engined, wide-bodied jet more than an hour before the pilots noticed anything amiss. When they did, they treated the problem as a fuel imbalance and failed to heed the checklist warning of fuel-leak possibility.
... ... ...
Investigators determined that the fuel leak was caused by improper installation of the right-side engine nearly a week earlier. Air Transat technicians, dealing with a slightly different model of Rolls-Royce engine than they were familiar with, had improperly attached fuel and hydraulic lines to the engine. The lines chafed, eventually fracturing the fuel line.
... ... ...
More at Globe and Mail
Air Transat report blames pilots
The Toronto Star
"Cascade of errors led to 2001 near disaster in Azores"
Crash probe slams Air Transat
CNW
Air Transat Flight TS 236 of August 24, 2001 - Air Transat Welcomes Investigation Findings and Recommendations
CBC News
Human error, flawed safety procedures blamed for Airbus emergency landing
CTV
Report blames pilots in Transat near-disaster
NATIONAL POST
Human error blamed for Airbus emergency landing
In the old Canadian Aviation Forum, now closed, I posted my point of view about what happened in the Azores. Nobody liked, a few attacked my lack of sensibility, I was told to wait for the report… and so on and so forth.
I don’t have access to the final report but to the Globe and Mail newspaper and I will not be able to get the report because I had to severe some “links†I had because of a disloyal lawyer (other kind of stories)
Finally the final report is out and I was proved 100% correct in everything I have said. Absolutely everything, be it the airmanship or the maintenance sides of the issue ...
After all it looks that I was not on "crack" B)
Excerpts
The harrowing, engines-out, emergency landing of a Canadian airliner that ran out of fuel over the Atlantic Ocean three years ago could have been avoided if the Air Transat pilots had followed established fuel-leak procedures, the official report into the accident concludes.
Instead of a near-disaster, a routine diversionary landing with plenty of fuel remaining would have resulted if proper produces were followed, Portugal's Aviation Accidents Prevention and Investigation Department says.
... ... ...
But accident investigators determined that the pilots turned a fuel leak into a near-disaster by failing to recognize it and trying to correct from memory – rather than by following a checklist – what they believed was a weight imbalance, during which time they pumped tonnes of fuel overboard.
... ... ...
However, the report makes clear that such heroics would not have been needed had the pilots shut down the right-side engine (where the fuel was leaking) or had not pumped tonnes of fuel from the undamaged left wing into the right-wing tanks, from where it was poured overboard at more than three kilograms a second.
"Either of these actions would have conserved the fuel in the left-wing tanks and allowed for a landing at Lajes with the left engine operating," the report says.
Instead, "opening the crossfeed valve put the fuel in the left tank at risk, and initiated a worsening of the serious fuel-leak situation."
The crew failed to comprehend that the aircraft had a major fuel leak, even after the second engine died.
... ... ...
Investigators established that fuel began leaking from the twin-engined, wide-bodied jet more than an hour before the pilots noticed anything amiss. When they did, they treated the problem as a fuel imbalance and failed to heed the checklist warning of fuel-leak possibility.
... ... ...
Investigators determined that the fuel leak was caused by improper installation of the right-side engine nearly a week earlier. Air Transat technicians, dealing with a slightly different model of Rolls-Royce engine than they were familiar with, had improperly attached fuel and hydraulic lines to the engine. The lines chafed, eventually fracturing the fuel line.
... ... ...
More at Globe and Mail
Air Transat report blames pilots
The Toronto Star
"Cascade of errors led to 2001 near disaster in Azores"
Crash probe slams Air Transat
CNW
Air Transat Flight TS 236 of August 24, 2001 - Air Transat Welcomes Investigation Findings and Recommendations
CBC News
Human error, flawed safety procedures blamed for Airbus emergency landing
CTV
Report blames pilots in Transat near-disaster
NATIONAL POST
Human error blamed for Airbus emergency landing
